Bitpay Phases Out Crypto-Debit Cards for European Cardholders

The global cryptocurrency payment service provider, Bitpay, has announced the company’s loadable cryptocurrency debit card services will no longer work for European customers later this month. Bitpay has emailed all of its European card holding customers and revealed it is in the midst of sunsetting all Bitpay accounts related to the Wave Crest-issued Bitpay card.

Bitpay Is Phasing out Debit Services for European Cardholders

Eight months ago news.Bitcoin.com reported on a slew of cryptocurrency debit cards forced to shut down services because of issues tied to the bank Wave Crest-Holdings. Many crypto-cards had to stop debit card operations because the issuer Wave Crest had its license from Visa revoked. Because of the banking issues, this week the cryptocurrency payment processor Bitpay has revealed that it is phasing out its Wave Crest-issued Bitpay card and associated services.

“As you know, your Bitpay card’s issuer Wave Crest Holdings Ltd. stopped providing service for your Bitpay Card as of October 2017 or January 2018,” explains the Atlanta-based firm.

Bitpay adds:

We are now working to sunset Bitpay accounts related to the Wave Crest-issued Bitpay card — In 30 days, we will be turning off access to your Bitpay card dashboard. If you need to store your card’s transaction data for any purpose, please export your transaction data before your card dashboard access ends on Wednesday, October 31st, 2018.

The Need for More Crypto-to-Debit or Something That Bypasses the Traditional Frictions Associated With Fiat

European Bitpay card users will need to use another card provider if they haven’t already switched over the last six months. At the moment residents from that area can use popular crypto-card issuers such as Revolut, and Wirex for their crypto-to-debit needs. Moreover, there are a few new crypto-to-debit card startups entering the space that plan to provide these services for European customers.

The advent of crypto-debit cards has made it easier for digital asset enthusiasts to spend their coins but the system is still tethered to the traditional financial network. In many ways, the model is still dealing with a fiat exchange and trading those coins for the user’s purchases. Additionally, former Bitpay cardholder can access a guide to extracting a comma-separated value (CSV) files that contain all of the user’s transactions for record keeping and tax purposes.

What do you think about the Bitpay card no longer servicing European countries? What cards do you know of work good in the region? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

Images via Pixabay, the Bitpay Card, and Shutterstock.

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